The present invention relates to securities trading systems, and more particularly, is directed to a system for facilitating price improvement from a crowd of programs respectively representing orders.
Shares representing corporate securities and other fungible financial instruments are typically bought and sold between parties via a trading process in which the owner (seller) informs his or her broker that the owner is interested in selling shares, and the would-be owner (buyer) informs his or her broker that the would-be owner is interested in buying shares.
In the simplest cases, the owner tells the broker to sell a specified number of shares immediately at whatever price can be obtained; this is referred to as a “market” order. In a more sophisticated case, the owner tells the broker to sell according to certain predetermined terms and conditions. For example, the owner may specify the sale price, referred to as a limit price, and the order then being referred to as a “limit” order. The owner may also specify other terms, such as “all or none”, “fill or kill” and/or the contra-parties that the owner is willing to sell to. The buyer is able to give corresponding instructions to his or her broker.
Conventional centralized order matching systems are well suited for this type of order matching. Indeed, some large brokerage firms have sufficient order flow to match buy and sell orders in their own systems, without sending the order to a centralized system. For small orders, as measured by a suitable combination of number of shares and total value in dollars or other currency, the conventional order matching systems are cost-effective and are used to execute a large percentage of orders.
Conventional order matching systems are not used by the brokerage community for the overwhelming majority of medium and large size orders, as the brokerage community insists it can get better prices using human brokers, despite the larger commission costs.
Furthermore, in more challenging cases in the trading process, the owner advises the broker of how many shares the owner might be interested in selling, if the broker can get a “good price”. A buyer may indicate interest in a corresponding manner. This is not an order, but rather an expression of interest. Conventional order matching systems are transparent to this type of market pressure. However, human brokers are able to use such information to seek contra-parties, thus providing markets with more depth and liquidity.
It is desirable to provide an automated system in which shares may be traded with the flexibility present when human brokers are involved in the trade.
There are many marketplaces for trading financial instruments. In each of these marketplaces, to trade a new type of security, for example, futures on the outcome of a political election, or shares in the revenue produced by a football team, requires a costly set-up process wherein potential traders are apprised of the existence of the new instrument and its trading rules.
It is desirable to provide an automated system for trading new financial instruments, or for trading existing instruments according to a new procedure, that avoids the costly set-up process.